The scientist will take to the Kidz Field this summer alongside magician Dynamo, as well as Mr Yipadee and his friend Wonky Donkey Continue reading...

Has the traditional format of the science journal had its day? Dorothy Bishop outlines an alternative model, based on consensual communication Continue reading...

The pro-European younger brother of Boris Johnson has replaced Greg Clark following the government’s cabinet reshuffle

Seven years after the ‘Berlin patient’ was cured of HIV, scientists are looking to natural immunity through genetic variation to create vaccine and gene therapies Continue reading...

Language that stresses co-operation, concern and trust found to be crucial to approval ratings, while just a few negative words can sharply worsen standings Continue reading...

The more scientists examine H2O, the stranger it starts to seem. Water bends all the rules – but if it didn’t, ice would sink and firefighters’ hoses would be uselessWater is the only substance on Earth whose chemical formula has entered the vernacular. We all know H2O, even if we don’t understand precisely what it means. But if it sounds simple, the reality is different. This common, seemingly boring substance baffles and confuses anyone who peers at it for long enough.Water breaks all the rules. Since the 19th century, chemists have developed a robust framework to describe what liquids are and what they can do. Those ideas are almost useless at explaining the weird behaviour of water. Its strangeness underlies what happens every time you drop an ice cube into a drink. Think about it for a moment: in front of you is a solid, floating on its liquid. Solid wax doesn’t float on melted wax; solid butter doesn’t float on melted butter in a hot saucepan; rocks don’t float on lava when it spews out of a volcano. Continue reading...

Landmark genetic study of typhoid has revealed a multidrug-resistant strain sweeping across Asia and Africa, killing 200,000 people a yearA silent epidemic of typhoid that is resistant to multiple antibiotics is spreading across Africa, posing a fresh threat to public health, according to a landmark genetic study of the organism.An international team of researchers analysed the DNA of nearly 2000 typhoid pathogens from countries across Asia and Africa and found that a single multiple- drug resistant strain had swept through Asia and crossed into Africa over the past 30 years.

Archaeologists believe first stone circle to be found on Devon moorland for 100 years lends weight to idea of liaison between communities there 5,000 years ago

British Airline Pilots Association says half of those surveyed back training for drone operators and prison sentences for endangering aircraft Continue reading...

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The source of our happiness is closer than ever to being located, measured and commodified. Alex Renton meets the ‘psychoeconomists’ and asks, have they created a monster?The happiest man in the world is a 67-year-old Buddhist monk called Matthieu Ricard. He starts his day sitting in a meadow in front of his hermitage in Nepal. He watches hundreds of miles of Himalayan peaks glowing in front of him in the rising sun. The scene “blends naturally and seamlessly with the peace he has within”.Over the past 40 years Ricard has put in more than 10,000 hours of meditation: he is the supreme practitioner of what we now call “mindfulness”. When not gazing at Himalayan peaks, Ricard is likely to be found in the boardrooms and at the dining tables of the rich and famous. Ever since his “happiest man” diagnosis in 2008 – made after days of brain scans at the Laboratory for Affective Neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin – he has been an object of fascination for the powerful. Continue reading...

Agriculture minister suggests University of Western Australia’s decision to cancel ‘Australia consensus centre’ was because academics’ consultancy fees would be jeopardised Continue reading...

New genome-editing technology has the potential to eliminate genetic disease by making changes to our DNA that will pass down the generations. Such modification is currently banned in the UK but could that be about to change?Last year Tony Perry made mice that would have been brown-furred grow up white instead. That Perry, a molecular embryologist at the University of Bath, tweaked their coat colour isn’t new – scientists have been making so-called knock-out mice, in which certain genes are disabled, since the technique was invented in 1989. It is a long and cumbersome procedure that involves combining pieces of DNA in embryonic stem cells and mouse breeding.But Perry, who published his study in December, didn’t use this method. Instead he used a new genome-editing technology that has been taking the scientific world by storm since it was first developed from the bacterial immune system in 2012, and shown to work in human cells in 2013.Since the 70s there has been a consensus that human germ-line modification is off boundsRelated: The Guardian view on the latest genetic engineering techniques: we need to talk about this, Professor | EditorialSome may think it important to use Crispr to make better humans, not just stamp out disease Continue reading...

European parliament to discuss scrapping of all animal research in response to citizens’ initiative petition signed by 1.2 million peopleThe European parliament will on Monday debate a call – backed by a petition signed by 1.2 million people – to scrap animal research in the EU. The proposal has alarmed scientists, who worked for six years to set up the 2010 European directive that controls animal experimentation and welfare in the EU.Researchers fear that the petition, which was drawn up by the Italian-based Stop Vivisection European citizens’ initiative, could sway many newly elected MEPs who would then press the European commission into scrapping the directive which, in the UK, is enshrined in an amendment to the 1986 Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act. Continue reading...

Fifty years ago, cosmonaut Alexei Leonov became the first person to walk in space, stepping out of the Voskhod-2 spacecraft

‘I was surrounded by stars, floating without control,’ recalls the cosmonaut who made history 50 years ago on a mission that nearly cost him his lifeFifty years ago, Alexei Leonov opened the airlock of his tiny space capsule, which was orbiting the Earth, and stepped into the void. For 12 minutes the Soviet cosmonaut floated above our planet, tethered to his ship by a 16ft cable. In doing so, Leonov became the first person to walk in space.Related: The first space walk – in pictures Continue reading...

The electoral polls were wrong, as every election watcher in the UK knows. But sometimes it takes an American to tell us just how wrong. Roger Pielke Jr dissects the ‘science’ of polling.

Over 1,500 cases have been reported in US since April, as overseas manufacturers circumvent regulations with dangerous new variations of legal highs

First the emphasis was on grades – now it’s all about character, with classes on empathy and respect. But can schools teach children how to be better people?Trouble comes to the educational psychologist in the shape of a lorry driven by a blue troll armed with a golden cutlass. The lorry’s owner is four-year-old Lucas. He’s made it out of oversized Lego bricks. It has wheels and is articulated. But it also has wings and a tailfin. Come to think of it, it might actually be some sort of plane.“Laura?” he says, to the psychologist, Dr Laura Warren. “Alfie said this was rubbish.” Continue reading...

Spacecraft’s receivers activated early on Friday in the hope that probe will make contact during increased exposure to sunlight over coming monthsThe European Rosetta spacecraft began to listen out for its robotic lander this morning amid hopes that the comet-riding probe may soon have enough solar power to wake from hibernation.

Astronomy professor Chris Impey joins Ian Sample to discuss a future in which humans no longer view earth as their only home planet Continue reading...

Stricken capsule loaded with more than three tonnes of food, fuel and supplies for the International Space Station falls out of orbit at 2.04am GMTAn unmanned Russian spaceship drifting in orbit after a failed cargo run to the International Space Station plunged into the Pacific Ocean on Thursday, Russia’s space agency reported.

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Scientists say only 20-40% of uncrewed cargo vessel likely to survive heat of re-entry and risk of people being hit is smaller than being hit by lightning

Galaxy EGS-zs8-1 has moved 30bn light-years away from Earth since it was born: ‘We’re actually looking back through 95% of all time to see this galaxy’A team of astronomers has measured a galaxy farther than any other ever seen by human beings, reporting this week that the ancient star system offers a glimpse of what the universe was like not all that long after the beginning of time.Astronomers from Yale University and the University of California Santa Cruz announced in the Astrophysical Journal that they had identified a galaxy that formed about 13.1bn years ago, making it the earliest measured galaxy known in the 13.8bn-year history of the universe since the big bang. Continue reading...

Most of us have little idea about how much our feelings shape our politics. By understanding our craving for ideology maybe one day we can dispense with it Continue reading...

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55kg bar of silver found in shallow waters off Saint Marie island may have belonged to notorious 17th-century Scottish pirate Continue reading...

Scientific advances have helped us understand and limit the impact of pandemics but we still cannot deliver the simple measures needed to control them for the benefit of all Continue reading...

Drugmaker decides to retain ViiV Healthcare as part of a plan to revive performance and boost growth in emerging markets Continue reading...

People have been doing it for more than 100 years, but it turns out that zapping your brain with an electric current might not be too good for your IQ Continue reading...

Concentrations of CO2 greenhouse gas in the atmosphere reached record global average in March, figures show, in a stark signal ahead of Paris climate talks• Extreme weather already on increase due to climate change, study finds Continue reading...

Test was of company’s ‘pad abort’ system designed to save lives of crew in case of emergency either upon launch or until rocket reaches orbit Continue reading...

A public lecture and interactive webcast by Amanda Peet

A pioneer in our understanding of cell shape and movement will be sorely missed – but his work lives on Continue reading...

The results of our recent consultation suggest that many politicians would welcome a fast-track service for talking to a massive ‘hivemind’ of UK researchers Continue reading...

Every day, millions of people ask Google some of life’s most difficult questions, big and small. In a new series, our writers answer some of the most common queries Continue reading...